Conventionally, in a system comprising an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer and a printer, a print control method called a “blank page skip”, in which if there is a blank page in print data, the blank page is not printed, has been used.
On the other hand, a printing control method having a so-called “interleave paper insertion function” has been available, which performs printing on media which should not be output upon being directly stacked on each other, e.g., OHP films, while inserting interleave paper between the media to prevent them from being directly stacked on each other and also prevent ink from being transferred onto a layout sheet or the back side of a sheet. In addition, in some cases, printing is performed on such interleave paper.
Conventionally, when two print control operations, i.e., “blank page skip” and “interleave paper insertion”, are performed at the same time, print control is generally performed to nullify the setting for blank page skip to inhibit blank page skip so as to prevent blank page skip from being performed for interleave paper (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-185445).
In this method, however, if both a page to be printed and the subsequent interleave paper are blank, blank sheets are continuously output, resulting in wasteful output of sheets.
Assume that interleave paper sheets are not blank pages (when printing is performed on the interleave paper sheets), and the contents printed on all the interleave paper sheets are the same. In this case, if an output page is a blank page, the page output as a blank page and the subsequent interleave paper become wasteful outputs. However, since the setting for blank page skip has been nullified, wasteful paper outputs occur.
There has been available a conventional printer apparatus which allows ON/OFF setting for “blank page skip” as a function of the printer alone through the operation unit of the printer body.
In addition, there has been available a printer driver for an information processing apparatus, which allows setting for the execution/nonexecution of “interleave paper insertion”. When setting for the execution of “interleave paper insertion” is to be made, the driver also allows setting for “also printing on interleave paper”.
Note that the setting for “also printing on interleave paper” is a mode of printing the same contents as those printed on a page to be printed on the interleave paper before or after the page to be printed.
This printer apparatus is not linked with the settings for “blank page skip” which are made by the printer driver of the information processing apparatus. Therefore, there has been a combination of a printer apparatus and a printer driver, which is designed such that when there is no print data on a page to be printed, no printing is performed on a blank page without fail, and when there is print data on a page to be printed, the page is printed, regardless of settings for “interleave page insertion” and “also printing on interleave paper” which are set from the printer driver.